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Homeworlds of Sol
Humankind left Earth behind a long, long time ago, filling every imaginable niche in their Solar System for nearly a thousand years. Driven by a primal urge to explore, to go further than their ancestors could have ever dared, mankind reached out for the nearest stars. Thanks to environmental adaptation, genetic engineering, and cybernetics humanity also started to rapidly speciate, breaking apart into peculiar subspecies like Homo Martial '''(Martians). Many animal species (whales, crows, apes, elephants, racoons, etc.) have been '''uplifted '''in small numbers, given humanlike intellect and dexterity - most of these creatures prefer to remain on Earth (cats being a notable exception). Today there are 19 systems bound together in a community called the '''Homochoron, which represents the shared interests of 30 billion human beings and innumerable AIs. Although instantaneous quantum communication keeps all of humanity connected there is no way for the Homeworlds to exert any kind of central control. Interstellar law is enforced by an agency called INTERPLAN, which apprehends criminals on the behalf of the Homochoron so that they can stand trial before a World Court. Millions of pilgrims 'still make long '''sabbaticals '''back to Sol's Homeworlds; often these are journeys that last generations, however, there is a deep, spiritual quality here that resonates with many human beings. Aside from ancient radio bursts and unusual fossil records humans have yet to encounter aliens from beyond our own Solar System. An "'intelligence" 'was discovered in the oceans of Europa and Ganymede, however, these waters have been under quarantine ever since a disastrous attempt at first contact was made. The '''Artilects '(godlike AIs) postulate that objects with sufficient mass (stars, for instance) may possess some unquantifiable form of consciousness, possibly existing in more dimensions than we can observe. Earth Luna The Moon's importance cannot be overstated; besides being the source of Earth's tides it was a crucial stepping stone out of the gravity well. Its resources fueled a golden age of clean industry, exploration, and science that was enjoyed by all of mankind. For most of its history the Moon's settlers ("Lunatics") have had a uniquely geocentric relationship with the Earth and the society that has emerged here is unlike any other. Since the 1960's the Moon has been treated as a kind of world stage where nations have competed for wealth, prestige, and power. Even the corporations that invested in Lunar industries were mere extensions of their sponsor governments, much like the trading companies of the Colonial Era. While old rivalries down on Earth took generations to play themselves out on the Moon a culture of stewardship was emerging. Settlers ("Lunatics" or "Loonies") marked their calendars according to Earthrise, which also made for a fantastic (if sobering) view in their night skies, a reminder of how their lives quite literally revolved around Terra. They also made regular sabbaticals to Earth (every few years) to inoculate themselves against disease and prevent the wasting effects of low G, so they had constant exposure to Earth's problems. Its therefore unsurprising that Luna was willing to leverage enormous subsidies on its resources to better the First World, and helped process billions of Diasporan refugees after the Collapse. Although it could never be terraformed on a scale like Mars or Venus the barren Moonscape was nonetheless transformed. Dusty regolith was fused into roads, pistes, and runways while craters were domed over, pressurized, and turned into lush biomes. These fragile oases housed cultures and ecosystems that were rapidly vanishing on Earth - cloud forests, estuaries, even coral reefs! Unlike the other Homeworlds there was never any popular movement towards independence from Earth. On the Far Side a haven for political exiles sprang up in Daedalus Crater, providing unconditional asylum. In an act of passive resistance (after trade wars on Earth led to severe shortages on the Moon) Daedalus neither warned the Earth of an impending asteroid strike nor did it try to prevent its impact (despite being Earth's early warning station). The event was a potentially catastrophic near miss and Daedalus' negligence was universally condemned, but it proved a valuable point. Earth was just as fragile as its colonies. When UN peacekeepers were sent to remove the settlers they found the settlement abandoned. They had left for L3 Lagrange Point on the opposite side of the Sun, establishing a new civilization called '''Icarus. Economy & Resources As a jumping off point from Earth and an important port-of-call among the Core World Luna boasts an robust transportation industry based on low-G manufacturing. A fleet of mass drivers, the first space elevators, and the Lagrange Waystations were all built to handle the shipping between Earth and its colonies. Some of the oldest and wealthiest shipwrighting guilds are Lunar and the Moon has historically produced some of mankind's finest explorers, navigators, and pilots.Tourism is one of its biggest sectors; millions of Spacers pass through every year on their pilgrimages to Earth, or simply to putt a holes on the Sea of Tranquility. The craters around the original Apollo landing sites now host lavish hotels and resorts. The true bedrock of Lunar industry, however, is mining. Polar mines churn out astonishing quantities of silver, titanium, and rare elements are sifted out of the regolith. The first "Smart" AI, Celeste, was assembled on Luna. The Moon imports biomass (soil, seeds, animals, plants, wood), people, medicine, and data. Culture Early settlers were stereotyped as being "Loonies", crazy enough to leave the comforts of Earth hoping to strike it rich or simply escape into space. A shortage of women encouraged polyandry and marriage was uncommon because many settlers were career obsessed and constantly moved around. There was a genuine feeling of living on the frontier; the closeness of death from vacuum exposure was all too real, and while Martians had the satisfaction of "taming the wilderness" with terraforming Loonies had no such delusions. Settlements ranged from company towns to scientific communes and tourist resorts. Since the 2100s most of the Lunar population has been descended from criminals and political exiles, mostly dissidents who were deported to Russian and Chinese labor colonies (peppering the Lunar vocabulary, accent, and speech patterns). Ethnicity & Species Most Loonies are descended from Russian, American, and Chinese settlers. Settlements * Nasireddin: a small crater in the southern hemisphere, 32 km. in diameter, named after the Persian scholar Nasir al-Din Tusi. It was first settled as an Iranian research station and even well into the 22nd Millenium remained ethnically and culturally homogenous. The crater is domed and supports a small biome based on Iran's Hyrcanian jungles; many of the trees here (Oak, Conifer, Black Alder, Poplar, Ironwood) have disappeared in Iran, felled to make room for cities and farms. Golden jackals, wild boars, otters, night herons, and snowcocks can be found here. The settlement is a small village, housing fewer than 100 people. * Chang'e: a former mining camp where political dissidents (Tibetan monks, cultural holdouts in Mongolia and Siberia) were exiled by the PRC before being shipped off to Mars or the asteroids. Chang'e boasts a vast mountain biome modeled on the Tibetan plain. Cantonese and Mandarin are the dominant languages here despite most of the population being Tibetan, Mongolian, and Siberian. Today it is home to all of the Moon's Zen monasteries. Its logo is a jade rabbit on a white sphere. * Shackleton: one of the earliest settlements on Luna, Shackleton was never more than a base camp turned research station for expeditions to the South Pole (given its tiny 21 km diameter). The crater's rim is always bathed in sunlight while the interior is permanently shadowed, acting as a cold trap for water ice. Over the years its ownership has changed hands frequently; it has been populated by British, Russians, French, Americans, and Norwegians. * Leap: American-chartered resort town in the Sea of Tranquility, 50 km. from the original landing sites. Apollo hosts the only golfing biome in the entire Solar System. The first Lunar hotel - a Hilton - was built here, and sports a late 60's Art Deco theme. * Daedalus: one of the few large settlements on the Far Side, Daedalus once boasted mankind's largest observatory. Its batteries of mass drivers make it an ideal shipping hub and defensive installation. Historically it has been a breeding ground for counter culture and political undergrounds dating back to the Incident. Its logo is a white sword hanging over a black circle rimmed by a blue corona. * Aitken Basin: The entire south pole is a giant impact crater, 2500 km wide and 13 km. deep. The outer rim of this crater can be seen from Earth as the Leibnitz Mountains. Because the crust is much thinner here the crater floor is rich in heavy metals and rare elements. The entire basin has been domed and encompasses a diverse range of biomes, from deserts to Alpine meadows and oldgrowth forests. * Vladislai IV: 'a Polish-chartered settlement in '''Tycho crater, '''in the southern highlands * '''Oppenheimer: ' * '''Mariotte: * Dyson: * Sasserides: * Phillipi: * Copernicus: '''capitol is '''Monarch * Lovell: * Apollo: ** Barringer: * Kleymenov: ''' Mars The Red Planet was the first of Sol's Homeworlds to be settled and terraformed. For more than a century the relationship between it and Earth was called the "Two-World Order". Much like on Luna this colonial relationship with Earth shaped the Martian identity as we understand it today. Martians ranged from either apathetic or hostile towards to the First World, especially when it came to Terran emigration. When Mars finally achieved independence it brought on a 20 year trade war with Earth, although the harsh sanctions actually helped stimulate settlement elsewhere in the System. This ended with the '''Morningstar Agreement, hammered out during the Mercury Sessions, '''which coordinated Earth, Mars, and the Jovian Moons into terraforming Venus.The 150 odd years that followed are remembered as the '''Interregnum, '''a period of easing tensions between Earth and her colonies lasting right up until the '''Terran Collapse. '''Mars took on over a billion refugees of the '''Terran Diaspora, more than any other Homeworld combined. Meanwhile the "'''Martian Miracle" '''that had had transformed the dead planet into a living oasis appeared to be unravelling. Unforseen variables left over from early terraforming had cropped up, and the planet was regressing back to a cold, red desert. The Martians managed to stall this process until a local gamma ray burst from a distant supernova fried the entire planet. Martians went back to living as they had in the pioneer days; in tent cities, hollow mesas, lava tubes, even underground shelters. Mars still looks much the same as it did before humanity arrived, albeit with seasonal rivers and streams (wadis), lichen, and vast tented basins and craters that have been terraformed (following the Lunar model). Culture Martians can best be described as a "desert" people. They are nomads, journeying between their hidden oases in rover caravans or dirigibles. Their close-knit communities are almost like tribes, split by scientific and philosophical differences dating back to the 21st Century when Mars was first being settled. Martians have always strived to distance themselves from Earth but were slow to embrace the posthuman era. Many are cynical about mankind's faith in technology (particularly terraforming), having seen it backfire catastrophically twice before. They believe in changing the primal planet as little as possible and only enough to survive on its surface (breathable air, adequate pressure); the oldest Martians have such an intimate lay of the land that they claim to read it like a story. Ethnicity & Species Although Mars is a Terran melting pot most Martians are descended from Earth's most endangered cultures; Apache, Bedouin, Polynesians, Sufis, Kurds, Arab Christians, Armenians, Tibetans, etc. These people were resettled in large numbers, followed by the biggest emigrators (China & India) and investors (America, Russia, Australia, Japan). There is a distinctly Arabian aesthetic to Mars. Centuries of living in lighter gravity has made Martians several feet taller and thinner than the average Terran (the tallest are 8-9 ft.). It has also made them vulnerable to interplanetary diseases. Lower G also seems to naturally retard aging. Mercury Venus Although popularly known as Earth's "sister world" Venus' hellish atmosphere made terraforming a monumental undertaking, only completed a century after the Terran Collapse. Until then Venusians had lived in floating, pearlescent "bubblecraft", spherical settlements that could be the size of cities. The grandest of these spheres was the city-state of '''Ishtar, '''which housed the first '''Pleasure Houses (Andromeda House '''in particular). Besides exporting sulfuric acid (a solvent rarely found elsewhere in the System) Venus' crushing atmosphere and corrosive winds made it an ideal dumping ground for spent fuel rods, dangerous experiments, and aging starships, as well as providing an excellent proving ground for material science. It was also known for the lurid entertainment provided by its Pleasure Houses; almost any pleasure could be catered to with absolute discretion, and gambling was the second biggest vice on the Morningstar (trillions of dollars changed hands since the planet started catering to the System's transnational elites). During the Terran Diaspora many of Earth's elites fled to Venus, however, after the '''Morningstar Agreement '''it also became open real estate for two billion of Earth's refugees. It was, after all, the only planet with an Earthlike gravity, mass, and air pressure. During the '''Mercury Sessions '''a decision had been made to terraform Venus; Earth would provide the workforce (most of them Chinese and Indian), Mars would offer expert guidance on terraforming, and the Outer Planets would deliver the gases needed for a breathable atmosphere. Thousands of asteroids were smashed into the planet, speeding up its rotation to a 36 hour day, and ejecting much of the atmosphere into space. A huge sunshield was then built, freezing the last traces of C02 solid and controlling the planet's insolation. Culture Venusians are known for their promiscuity; gender, social, and sexual norms are incredibly liberal, even by the standards of other worlds. The planet's old power structures were matriarchal, being descended from the Pleasure Houses (themselves spun off from human trafficking among the Chinese Triads). The planet is famous for both its discretion and hospitality, and historically has been a favorite vacation spot for the transnational elite. Fascinatingly Venus is the only place in the Solar System where English is not lingua franca. Although there are few class distinctions there appears to be a vague caste system on Venus, split between the original settlers (descended from Earth's wealthy elites) and the Diasporan refugees who terraformed the planet. Life on Venus is slower and much more relaxed with plenty of partying (some people spend most of their lives just travelling between the planet's various festivals, celebrating every feast and holiday from Saturnalia to Holi). The entire planet seems to run on "island time" and there are few distinctions between business and pleasure. There is no concept of adolescence on Venus (during the terraforming years children were born into their parents' work groups). Ethnicity & Species Typically Pan Asian descent (mostly Indian and Chinese) but many take names from Classical mythology to distance themselves from their homelands. There are few discernible differences between Venusians and Terrans. Geology Despite appearing to have no tectonic plates the planet's surface is dominated by volcanism. About 80% of Venus is a mosaic of lava plains, dotted by more than a hundred large shield volcanoes and hundreds of thousands of smaller ones (less than 20 km. in diameter). Lava flows can be tens of kilometers wide and hundreds of kilometers long and there are entire dunes of ash. The four major mountain ranges are all found on Ishtar. Some features are unique to Venus; ''coronae ''(huge, ring shaped structures 100-300 km. across and rising hundreds of meters above the surface), ''tesserae ''(complex ridges seen on plateau highlands caused by crustal folding, buckling, and breaking, resembling floor tile mesas), and ''arachnoids ''(huge fracture systems resembling spider webs, sometimes 200 km. in size). 10% of the planet is highlands over 2 km. - the rest are lowlands below the datum (post terraforming these highlands are island groups and the lowlands are steaming oceans). The surface is quite young (only 300-500 million years old) because the planet often completely resurfaces with lava; there are few signs of bombardment or erosion. Post-Terraforming Venus still lacks a magnetic field; this made up for by its sunshield, which controls the amount of insolation the planet gets from the Sun. The sunshield can mimic natural day/night cycles and even Earthlike seasons (though the Venusians prefer a Mediterranean-like climate). 90% of the planet is covered in shallow, steaming, and slightly acidic oceans; the other 10% are large archipelagos surrounding two large island continents - '''Aphrodite and Ishtar. '''The land is covered in carefully maintained rainforest and the oceans are full of warm-water algae, which are crucial part of the planet's life support system (filtering out the remaining c02 pumped out by volcanoes). There are few permanent settlements on the planet despite having a population of over 2 billion because it is so volcanically active. Instead entire cities can be relocated within a matter of months and entire populations can be evacuated at a moment's notice. Settlements are grown from living bio-ceramics, best described as a strange kind of "seashell architecture" where cities resemble coral reefs. The land is extremely fertile thanks to heavy amounts of volcanic ash; naturally Venus has become one of the System's most productive bread baskets. Atmosphere pressure is slightly higher than on Earth, with higher concentrations of 02 and C02. An average human would have to wear a rebreather if they were outside longer than a few minutes but most Venusians have been genetically modified to breathe the air. All water on the planet had to be imported in ice comets from the Kuiper Belt and storms are quite common because of the planet's warm oceans. Jovian Moons Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & the Ice Dwarfs Asteroid Belt Other settlements The Lagrange Waystations Icarus Station Star Systems Barnard's Star, Alpha Centauri, Luhman 16, Lalande 21185, Groombridge, Aquarii, Procyon, Cygni, Epsilon Eridani & Indi, Struve, Tau Ceti, Teegarden's Star, Lacaille 8760, Kruger 60, Ross 614, Van Maanten's Star, Gliese 1, Sirius